Liberace Cooks Lasagna!

Did he drain?

"Lasagna is made from a long, flat noodle."

Connie Casserole

Rainbow lasagna!

That’s great! Thanks for posting!

I’m surprised it wasn’t about parmigiana?

Astounded by how ugly that kitchen and those kitchenwares are. That was well before Euro-style and industrial kitchenware.

Ms. Child was not worried.

Macadamia nuts?!?

Egad- he strains! And he overcooked the noodles

Don't miss Christmas with Lee!

He seems awkward and uncertain. But sweet.

Ms. Child's foray into lasagna was equally embarrassing.

Marcella Hazan did the most respected recipe of the decade. Also cheese and pasta shops proliferated in major cities so you could buy homemade lasagna sheets.

The Times has a more detailed version of Hazan's lasagna.

He made one big mistake. He should have put a layer of sauce in the baking pan first and put the first layer of noodles on top of that. Otherwise your bottom layer of noodles end up sticking to the pan.

The Silver Palate version--popular in the 80s

think the layered look is definitely in this season.

CLASSIC LASAGNA WITH BOLOGNESE SAUCE

Eight servings

Preparation time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours

Bolognese sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup minced onion

1/2 cup minced celery

1/4 cup minced carrot

1/4 pound prosciutto or smoked ham, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 pound boneless lean beef round, ground twice

1/4 pound boneless lean pork, ground twice

1 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups beef bouillon

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 pound chicken livers, cut into pieces

Grated rind of 1 lemon

Bechamel sauce:

8 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

4 cups milk

To assemble dish:

1 pound curly-edged lasagna noodles

1 1/2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. To make bolognese sauce: Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in large, deep frying pan. Add onion, celery, carrot and prosciutto. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes. or until vegetables are tender. Transfer vegetables to 3- or 4-quart saucepan.

2. Add oil to same pan, then beef and pork. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until meat is browned. Use two forks to prevent meat from lumping. Stir in wine, and cook until pan juices have been reduced to a fourth, or have almost evaporated. Stir in beef bouillon and tomato paste and mix well. Add meat to vegetables in saucepan. Heat to a boil, then reduce heat to very low and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and cook for 15 more minutes, or until mixture is on the thick side.

3. Meanwhile, in same frying pan, heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter and add chicken livers. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes. Stir chicken livers and lemon rind into meat for last 10 minutes of cooking meat. Set aside and reserve.

4. To make bechamel sauce: Heat 8 tablespoons butter in heavy saucepan. Stir in flour, salt, pepper to taste and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; do not brown. Gradually stir in milk. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens, is smooth and is beginning to boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

5. To assemble dish: Fill a 6-to 8-quart cooking pot with water, and add 2 tablespoons salt. Bring to rapid boil. Gradually add lasagna, taking care that water does not stop boiling rapidly. Cook without a cover, stirring frequently with long fork, until lasagna noodles are tender but still firm. Snip off a piece of noodle to test doneness. Drain in colander. Separate cooked lasagna and lay on paper towels to dry.

6. Using a buttered baking dish, 13 by 9 by 2 inches, spoon about 1 cup bechamel sauce over bottom of dish. Add a layer of lasagna noodles and enough bolognese sauce to cover pasta. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese. Layer more lasagna, cover with bechamel sauce and sprinkle more parmesan. Spread more bolognese sauce over lasagna and parmesan and sprinkle with more cheese. Another layer of lasagna is now covered with bechamel sauce and sprinkled with cheese. Repeat layering, ending with bechamel sauce to cover whole surface. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

7. Bake without cover in preheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until mixture is bubbly and golden brown. If necessary, broil for 1 minute to brown top.

8. Allow lasagna to settle 5 to 8 minutes before serving. Serve directly from pan.

it also looked like all those ice cubes really shredded his noodles. They were in shreds when be took them out of the pot.

I've got a recipe everyone just adores for my special version using capons and almond butter that I'm serving to the doorman, the dental hygienist, and the dry cleaners this Christmas!

Paula Deen, y'all!

[bold]THE LADY & SONS LASAGNA[/bold]

Prep time: 20 minutes; cook time: 20 minutes

Serves 20 (or 5 fat whores)

Ingredients

2 cups diced tomatoes

2 cups tomato sauce

1 cup water

1/2 cup onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup diced green bell pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt

1 1/2 teaspoons House Seasoning (salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder)

1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

[italic]Optional:[/italic] 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1/4 cup cold water

6 to 9 lasagna noodles

12 ounces ricotta cheese or cottage cheese, mixed with 1 beaten egg and 1/2 cup Parmesan

1 cup grated Gruyère cheese

1 cup grated Swiss cheese

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese

1 cup grated mozzarella

Directions

To make the sauce, combine the tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, onion, garlic, bell pepper, parsley, sugar, seasoning mixtures, and bay leaves in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Crumble the ground beef in a saucepan. Cook until no pink remains, then drain off the fat. Add the ground beef to the stockpot. Simmer for another 20 minutes, then remove the bay leaves. (If sauce is too thin, bring sauce back to a boil and stir in cornstarch-water mixture, stirring constantly.) While the sauce simmers, cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

To assemble lasagna, place a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan. Layer 1/3 of noodles, cottage cheese mixture, Gruyère, Swiss, and cheddar. Pinch off small pieces of cream cheese and dot over other cheeses. Add another layer of sauce. Repeat layers 2 to 3 times, ending with sauce. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, top with mozzarella, and return to oven to bake another 10 to 15 minutes.

The Pioneer Woman's lasagna, made with ([italic]quelle horreur![/italic]) Jimmy Dean sausage

I can’t have lasagna; I’m on the watermelon diet.

I dropped the ricotta awhile back; I only make it with béchamel sauce 💅. It really is better.

That Paula Deen version has 6(!) cups of cheese. I wonder what her triglyceride count is, my gawd.

Unfortunately, she's still living.

Chicken livers in lasagna? Ew.

The livers disappear.

[quote] "That Paula Deen version has 6(!) cups of cheese. I wonder what her triglyceride count is, my gawd."

Agreed, R22. I realize it's "on brand' for her, and I LOVE cheese, but at that point it's just a waste, hoggish and fucking disgusting. Simpler is almost always better. Even in richer dishes. As long as the ingredients are excellent.

Liberace is dead, but Paula Deen still walks amongst us?

[quote]Liberace is dead, but Paula Deen still walks amongst us?

Liberace is dead, but Paula Deen still waddles amongst us?

[quote] I dropped the ricotta awhile back; I only make it with béchamel sauce 💅. It really is better.

Good! Lasagna is much better with a béchamel sauce. My mother and aunt always made it the Italian-American way with ricotta that had been mixed with an egg, some grated cheese, and chopped parsley. Then they would also add shredded mozzarella. But it is far better with a béchamel.

Trust Kenji for spinach lasagna.

That is some good shit, r30. Make your own pasta. That's the way to make lasagne.

I always hear it’s better with Bechamel but I guess I’m just stuck on the nostalgic Italian American ricotta style.

wow, thank you OP

[quote]Good! Lasagna is much better with a béchamel sauce. My mother and aunt always made it the Italian-American way with ricotta that had been mixed with an egg, some grated cheese, and chopped parsley. Then they would also add shredded mozzarella. But it is far better with a béchamel.

You should try pastitsio.

Thanks, R34, I did make Pastitsio last year and then posted about it. I then received many negative responses from people.

R34, read this to see what happened when I said that I made Pastitsio.

He doesn’t tell us how to make the sauce. That is not a recipe.

In Paula's recipe I would cut the cheese (LOL) and sub in a cup of red wine for the 1 cup of water.

R37, Liberace is charming and sweet, but that lasagna looks pretty horrible. Even if one prefers to use ricotta cheese, it should be combined with egg, grated cheese, and freshly chopped parsley—not just dropped on from the ricotta container.

He is more butch than I thought he could be with that onion chopper.

(Then he immediately goes into a little gay swoop up with the chopped onions!)

The NYT has a recipe for Mushroom lasagna with a bechamel sauce. Decadent, but oh so good. Samin Nosrat came out with a decadent lasagna recipe before COVID, but the last thing my fat ass needed was to stay in my house & eat that lasagna

Ick i hate lasagna

He put NUTS into his lasagna, what the hell?? Also looks like he way overcooked the noodles; they were in pieces.

I love the video anyway; thanks for the link.

R16- Sounds gross 🤢

Too much meat 🍖

Why was Liberace doing a cooking segment? He seems nervous and inept. (But also darling and sweet and I love him).

What is this from?

Is that his real kitchen? It is so ugly.

Kenji's lasagna with an exquisite Bolognese sauce.

Samin Nosrat's Big Lasagna

He was probably promoting his cookbook, r45. The kitchen on the cover has a piano-key tile backsplash.

I was #blessed to get the cookbook during a gift swap with jokey or trashy items a few years ago. I was ready to cut any bitch who came for my book, but, shockingly, no one wanted it.

I can’t imagine why.

Liverace's Sticky Buns with Frank DeCaro

i am so glad i posted that link!

i swear there’s no better way to figure out a recipe than to start a thread on DL.

thank you all for the links and other tips for lasagna making! i think i’m going to make one for a new year’s eve dinner!

i do have a sick love of lee’s kitchen color scheme.

Lee was better looking than I remembered. He actually had a cute face. That hair (and his usual makeup in later years) were dead ugly.

That tile in the background is seizure inducing.

So Lee was half Italian, right?

Yes, and half-Polish, I think.

OP- I think he does better at singing and sounding butch like in this video-

I keep envisioning making lasagna with pierogis which strangely enough I bet would be good as a bake. Cheese on top, baked golden. I’m not Greg but I’ll stand in…..

The bitch fight between Greg and Liberace would really be something.

He should've called it LEE-sagna.

Adding macadamia nuts sounds like something a stoner would do.

[quote]He should've called it LEE-sagna.

I love how he calls the dish "Liberace's Lasagne," like it's the most clever thing ever.

He had me until the macadamias.

I know. Just big hunks of macadamia nuts in there?

I can’t unsee Liberace making lasagna… So many things wrong… “Remember to take off your diamond rings…” But he left that dangly bracelet on… I just wanted to yell, “Pick up the goddam onions!”.

I want a copy of his cookbook. I guess I should try Abesbooks or EBay

His cookbook goes from like $84 to over $200 on various sites. It’s out of print and apparently relatively rare.

There are actually two cookbooks: [italic]Liberace Cooks![/italic] (Doubleday, 1970) and [italic]Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America's Kitschiest Kitchen[/italic] (2007), an "official" publication of the Liberace Foundation.

Liberace recipes: Cheese Pierogi

Liberace: Coddled Eggs

Liberace: Chicken divan

Liberace: Remiscitti Casserole

Liberace: Meatball Soup

Liberace: Blue Ribbon Potato Soup

Many recipes besides pierogi: Braised Oxtails, Brains in Black Butter, Stuffed Sea Bass, Squid Casserole, Quick Apple Pie, 15-minute eggs, Convent Soup, Shrimp Chef's Salad, Gazpacho, Beef Stroganoff, Mom's Potato Soup, Liberace Special Burgers, Chicken Divan, Shish Kebab, Singapore and Malaysian Satay, Guacamole, Tomato Sauce, Barbeque Sauce, Coffee Frosting,

I’ve always had good results with the below recipe, which I’m making for Christmas Eve tomorrow, but am looking forward to trying some of the other recipes shared in this thread. (Not Liberace’s - macadamia nuts are a step too far!)